


Can You Hear Me Now?

by firenewt



Category: Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Anger, Complicated Relationships, Dysfunctional Relationships, Emotional, Gift Fic, Lack of Communication, Love, M/M, Prompt Fic, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 03:28:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17993993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firenewt/pseuds/firenewt
Summary: Veld and Vincent struggle to communicate and really hear each other across the chasm that has developed in their relationship.





	Can You Hear Me Now?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EchoThruTheWoods](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoThruTheWoods/gifts).



> Written for FVII Rare Pair Week 2019, Day 7 (free day).
> 
> Written for EchoThruTheWoods, because making the effort to comment on stories is so much appreciated! :) 
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer: Thanks to Square Enix for letting me play in their world.

Veld pushed open the door to the office and stepped inside, leaving it half open behind him. Vincent had arrived before him and was sitting on the small couch, staring out the window. They were halfway up the tower, and could see vehicles and people busily going about their business on the streets below, as well as the occasional helicopter lifting off or descending from the landing platform. 

One such arrival caught Veld’s eye as he moved into the room. “Ah. That must be Tseng and Katana getting back from Junon. I hope they have something for us.”

“Mm,” Vincent said noncommittally. His fingers tapped on the arm of the sofa.

“I know you care _so_ much,” Veld said with an edge in his voice. He strode to the chair across from the couch and sat, gripping the end of the arms and frowning slightly as the minutes ticked by.

“Where _is_ that doctor?” Veld muttered, looking at his watch. “I need to get back!”

At that moment the door opened fully and the woman in question walked in. “Both here, I see,” she said amiably, closing the door behind her. “Good. We can get right down to brass tacks.”

She moved briskly toward Veld. “My chair. You know that.”

Grumbling, Veld rose reluctantly, and stepped across to join Vincent. While the doctor took the chair and set down her coffee mug on the floor beside it, he manspread himself on the couch. Vincent crossed his legs and moved his arm closest to Veld onto his lap, leaning slightly toward his side of the couch. There wasn’t much room to spare, but his body language made it clear that he wasn’t keen on sitting next to Veld, let alone touching him.

“So!” said the doctor. She had a legal pad on her knees and was flipping through the top pages. “Last time we were…let’s see. Oh, yes. Communication. Vincent, our time had just run out when you said that you didn’t feel that you were being heard, is that right?”

“Yes.” Vincent made the supreme effort to tear his gaze from the window and be present.

“Are we going to be done on time?” Veld asked.

Vincent looked down, clenching his fists.

The doctor tilted her head and looked at Veld. “So, what did you just do?”

“I…asked when we were going to be done?” 

“And what were we talking about last week?”

Veld thought hard. There were so many things he had to keep track of, and honestly, this did not register high on his list of priorities. Which, if he had actually put some consideration into it, was a big reason why they were in counseling in the first place.

“Um...”

“De…” the doctor prompted.

“De-railing!” Veld exclaimed with a smile, proud of himself. The others just looked at him. “Ohh.” He said sheepishly. 

“Yeah. Oh.” Vincent growled, and looked out the window again.

“I just wanted to know if we’d be done on time! I’ve got a lot happening today that I need to be there for!” He looked at Vincent. “You should be happy I’m here at all!”

Vincent didn’t bother to reply. Veld’s lips disappeared in a scowl. 

“Mhm.” The doctor made a few notes on her pad, then looked up, waiting. When both of her patients just sat there with the tension rising, she finally spoke. “Vincent, you’re not saying anything. Why not?”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.”

“Do you really feel that this is the best way to deal with things? You said you didn’t feel like you were being heard. Is this what you mean?”

He shrugged again. “Sort of. I guess.”

Veld scoffed and crossed his arms, turning his head to look at the abstract painting on the opposite wall. 

“So, let’s unpack this. Right now, you are responding in the way you normally deal with Veld? Is that correct?”

“Yes,” Veld broke in. “He’s acting like his usual passive aggressive asshole self!”

Vincent twisted his head around from facing the window so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. “And you’re acting like your usual rude, inconsiderate self! All you ever do is criticize me and put me down!”

“I just call ‘em like I see ‘em!”

“Then you need glasses!”

“Whiner!”

“Barbarian!”

“Okay, okay, knock it off, you two!” The doctor pinched the bridge of her nose for a minute, shaking her head. Then she picked up her coffee cup and took a drink, considering. “Let’s back the truck up a bit here. Veld, you said that Vincent is acting in a passive aggressive manner. Vincent, what do you think of that?”

“What am I supposed to think!”

“Would you agree? Now, remember, we went over assertiveness last week. Would you say you’re acting in an assertive, aggressive, passive or passive aggressive manner by being silent and ignoring Veld?”

“He’s trying to manipulate me!” Veld interrupted. 

“And you’re acting in an aggressive manner,” the doctor said severely. “Why don’t you think about _that_ , because I’m coming to _you_ next.”

Veld looked like he wanted to say something else, but thought better of it. He shut his mouth and sat back but kept his arms crossed and glowered.

“Well?” the doctor asked Vincent again. 

He gave his go-to shrug. “I guess.”

“You guess what?”

“Passive aggressive.”

“Let’s hear you own it.”

“I act in a passive aggressive way,” Vincent said tightly.

“Right. So, instead, you want to turn that into an assertive attitude, right? Not an aggressive one and attack back.”

“Okay,” came the unenthusiastic reply.

“And how do we do that, in a situation like this?”

“We…” Vincent pondered for a minute, then continued. “We use ‘I’ statements. We express our feelings. We avoid, um, communication detours. We compromise or state consequences. We stay calm.” He gave Veld a side-eye.

“Very good. So, go ahead. This is an excellent time to practice some assertiveness.”

Vincent uncrossed and re-crossed his legs, and shifted both arms into his lap, hugging himself. He stared straight ahead and spoke to the wall behind the doctor. “I…don’t like it when you criticize me. I feel…uh…I feel angry and hurt. I feel like you don’t listen to me anyway so why should I bother saying anything. I feel like you never have time for me. I feel like you avoid me when you don’t want to speak to me.” Once he started, things kept pouring out. “I feel sad and angry and hurt when I see you talking with the others and sharing jokes and being comfortable with them, and you leave me out of it. I feel…sad…because we used to have such good times together and now I hardly see you. I feel like I’m not important to you anymore.” His voice got softer toward the end and became a little hoarse, but his face stayed blank.

There was a small silence. “Okay, great,” the doctor praised him. “You did that well. A good example of assertiveness without aggressiveness. And you made your feelings clear, which is important. No one is going to know what you’re thinking and feeling unless you speak up. Because we don’t mind read. That just leads to assumptions that create problems, right? So you speak up.” She turned to Veld, who was looking rather uncomfortable. “So let’s talk about you. Would you agree that you’ve been behaving aggressively?”

Veld sighed and nodded. 

“Let’s hear it out loud.”

Veld cleared his throat. “I was being aggressive.”

“Yes, you were. Why do you think you were acting that way?”

“Because he was being so irritating!”

“You’re detouring.”

“I’m not…!” Veld stopped and took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Can you answer the question without denying your behavior or blaming someone else for it?”

“Use your ‘I’ statements.” Vincent interjected with a little self-satisfied smirk.

“That was _not_ necessary,” the doctor said firmly to Vincent, as Veld’s face flushed. “If you don’t want to be attacked, don’t antagonize.” She nodded at Veld to go on, before the situation could escalate again.

“I…I like to get things done. I feel impatient and irritated when he…” The doctor gestured with her chin toward Vincent. “He’s right there. Speak directly to him, don’t ignore him.” 

Veld took another deep breath and shifted slightly on the couch so he was facing more toward Vincent, and started again. “I feel impatient and irritated when you don’t take my advice. He…I feel like you move too slowly and always have some excuse for not doing things. I feel like he…I feel sad and irritated when you are always so depressed and I can’t fix it. I feel…tired, and frustrated. I feel…sad. Sad that you’re so unhappy all the time and don’t seem to want to make any moves to change that.” Veld sank slowly back into the couch and looked at the rug.

Again, there was a short silence. The doctor didn’t let it go for very long. She scribbled some notes, glanced discreetly at her watch, and then tapped her pen on her pad thoughtfully. “This is good. Both of you have made some important statements about your feelings, and that gives us something concrete to pursue. How are you feeling about it?” she directed the question toward Vincent. 

He started to shrug, but stopped and stared down at his hands. “…okay..?” he said uncertainly. 

“Anything else? Do you feel like you’ve been heard?”

Vincent glanced sideways at Veld again. “I hope so.”

“Is that a good feeling?”

“I’m…not sure.” Vincent said, biting his lip. “I feel…kind of worried, actually. Maybe a bit…scared.” 

“Do you know why?”

“Because I…I said it. I can’t take it back. It’s out there. I don’t know what will happen. What if…what if something bad happens?”

“So, you feel vulnerable? Exposed?”

“…yes,” Vincent whispered.

“What is the worst that could happen, do you think?”

There was no response. “Vincent?”

“I don’t…I…he would go away. He wouldn’t want to be with me anymore. He’d stop loving me. I’d be alone again.”

“How likely is it that that would happen, do you think?” the doctor asked softly, deliberately avoiding looking at Veld.

This time Vincent _did_ shrug. He couldn’t trust his voice.

The doctor mercifully took the spotlight off him. “Veld,” she asked in her normal tone. “How are you feeling about today’s session?”

“I…” Veld had to clear his throat again. He blinked and swallowed. “I think it’s been good,” he said. He hesitated, then blew his cheeks out. “Funnily enough, I think I agree…I feel the same way that h…that you do, Vincent,” he said.

“Mm,” said the doctor. “It’s important to recognize these kinds of feelings, and why people often don’t want to share them.” Veld nodded slowly. He often had to coax his Turks through much the same discovery and communication process, but somehow, when it came to himself, and to Vincent, he had a huge blind spot and no patience. 

“Are you worried about the same things?”

Veld had to give that some thought. “Yes, and no,” he said. “I’m not planning to leave any time soon. But I do worry about losing him. I’m scared that we’re going in different directions and don’t have much in common anymore. I feel he might just drift away, and one day just be gone. And I don’t want that to happen."

“Can you tell him that?”

Veld turned all the way toward Vincent. He started to put his hand out, to place it on Vincent’s knee, then stopped, and let it fall to the couch. “You _are_ important to me. I don’t want that to happen,” he said directly to the other man, looking sadly at him.

“Well!” said the doctor cheerfully after a pause, breaking the mood. “I think that’s a good place to stop for today! Now, I have some homework for the both of you,” she continued. “First, I want you each to write down what you shared today. We’re going to need to refer back to these important feelings. Next, I want you to make an appointment with each other for a dinner at home. Vincent, you get to pick the kind of food, and Veld, you pick the day and time, so it fits with your schedule. But it has to be by this weekend. And no alcohol. And I want each of you to discuss at least one of the thoughts and feelings that you brought up.” They both nodded, not looking at each other. “Use your ‘I’ statements. Be assertive but not aggressive. No name-calling. And let the other person speak without interruption. Okay?” They nodded again.

Veld sighed and slumped a little. Now it was time to transition to Director mode and move on with his day, and that was always difficult. Vincent hadn’t moved yet.

“Okay!” the doctor rose and smiled. “Great session, you two. Next time we’re going to have to start on cognitive behavior. I think we’ve got a _lot_ of distorted thinking patterns to deal with here. I can think of a bunch off the top of my head…catastrophizing, control fallacies, overgeneralization, the fallacy of change, the fallacy of being right, emotional reasoning, waiting for a reward…heck, we’ll just plunge into _all_ of them! Alright, I’ll see you both on Tuesday!” She could be forgiven some eager anticipation of the possibility of multiple papers being generated as a bonus for dealing with such a _challenging_ couple. 

She left the room, and they overheard her speak to the receptionist on her way out. “Sonja, give them each the handout on cognitive distortions, will you, so they have a chance to go over it before the next appointment. Thanks!” 

“Sounds like we’re going to have homework again, besides our dinner assignment,” Veld grimaced. “Like I don’t have enough to do and enough briefs to read!”

Vincent finally looked up. “Maybe…maybe we could study together..?” he ventured.

Veld returned his gaze, and then smiled. “I’d like that,” he said finally. “And I’ve now really got to run, you know I do!”

Vincent nodded. “Okay,” he said. He gave Veld a shy little smile in return. “…see you later.”


End file.
